Tevez shambles almost over?

They call it 'the Carlos Tevez' affair, but it's not an affair at all really. Affairs are what sweaty fat men have with their secretaries. It's more like your average sham marriage: a deliberate construct aimed at benefiting all parties - except the authorities.

When Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez were touted around the Premier League by owner-agent Kia Joorabchian, it seemed a little odd that they ended up at West Ham United, being photographed alongside a suitably shocked-looking Alan Pardew, then Hammers manager. It's fair to say that the whole 'affair' was a little suspect.

Sure enough, it emerged that Joorabchian's involvement was interesting, to say the least. As is common in South America, Macherano and Tevez were part-owned by Joorabchian. This, among other suspected concerns, rendered the players ineligible to play in the Premier League. Joorabchian was a third party, and that's a big no no. Or at least it used to be.

The Premier League whimpered at the thought of tackling Joorabchian, and shuffled their feet long enough for West Ham to play Tevez for most of a season in which they ended up with a new manager, Alan Curbishley, who helped them to the depths of a relegation battle which should have doomed them to the Championsip. Strangely, Mascherano didn't get much of a look in.


But then Carlos came to the rescue. A string of outstanding performances and key goals from the little Argentine striker - including the winner on the final day at Old Trafford - kept West Ham up. You'd almost be pleased for him if he wasn't an accessory to this sordid nonsense. Of course, where relegation is involved, there has to be a loser. Sheffield United were sickeningly relegated from the Premier League in 2007.

Common sense and precedent suggested that playing an ineligible player in so many games could land West Ham with as much as a fatal 18-point deduction. At the very least, three points would have relegated them.

The Premier League utterly disgraced itself with its ruling. Despite finding West Ham guilty, the body did not relegate them or deduct the points necessary to do so. For playing a world-class ineligible player for free a season, West Ham United were fined £5.5m. The reason for such leniency? "Won't somebody please think of the supporters?" The League's foot-dragging had left it unable to punish United appropriately. Besides, what about the Sheffield United fans?

Needless to say, Sheffield United were not best pleased. After all, £5.5m is peanuts compared to the sums involved in promotion and relegation to and from the top flight. Blades chairman Kevin McCabe has been seeking compensation, and a tribunal has now indicated that the door is open for him to achieve his aim, to the tune of £30m. I hope it works out that way.

So well done to Sheffield United for sticking to their guns. West Ham should have been thrown out of the league for their blatant and total disregard for the rules, for deceiving the league, and for bigging themselves up when the two players came in. As for the Premier League...absolutely disgusting. Another notch on Richard Scudamore's hellish bedpost of bad leadership.

(Photo Credits: CNN, The Sun)